It was great being on vacation for a month. Luckily all was beautiful and I wish I lived there (I was in Scandinavia). But I live in the US. As most of you probably already know, I have several Facebook groups where I keep in touch with over 1000 members discussing medical issues, migraines, etc. I received a private message yesterday from a friend and to conceal his/her identity, I will not use name and use “she” for generic though the person need not have been a female.

I have discussions like this all the time with frustrated people whom the medical system fails. The number of these people is growing as is my anger toward the medical and pharmaceutical industry. There are stigmas out there that are not only unwarranted but are harmful. The medical oath Do No Harm does not seem to stand anymore. Personal bias has taken over and the patients are helpless. I am hoping to change that–or at least start a change that others can catch up on and follow to solve the problem.

So here is a classic case that happens more often than not. This particular patient has various illnesses, one of which is migraine. Unfortunately there is a huge stigma among many doctors that migraine is 1) just a headache with a crying and non-pain tolerant person and 2) it is a mental case. Now we have a 3rd variation: a migraineur is a druggist. This is new to me! It is also sad and shameful that doctors today have so little understanding and are not updating their knowledge at all. I wrote a book on migraines and posted several articles on its blog. There is one that lists the symptoms of a headache versus a migraine. Read it to see what a migraine is (particularly if you are a doctor!) before you make judgments in the future. This list is not my fiction of imagination but from Mayo Clinic and other medical sources.

So let me return to my discussion with this migraineur yesterday. She had a migraine for a week and it was getting worse–I call this a runaway migraine. She asked if she should go to emergency room (ER) and I suggested to go; in fact I would have gone after the 3rd day, which is what I used to do while I still had migraines. I no longer do–and you too can prevent them if you read my book Fighting the Migraine Epidemic but my process is not medicinal and so it is not an instant solution.

So this person (not sure if she already has read my book or not) contacted me and told me what happened at the ER. Here is what was written (edited):

“The ER doctor said, ‘I understand you are a migraine patient and for that reason alone I will tell you upfront that you will NOT be receiving ANY form of a narcotic. You will NOT receive any muscle relaxers or anxiety reducing medications. You will be given IV fluids and a steroid plus Imitrex and Benadryl.’I said I do not want Imitrex because it makes me very sick. They said I was being a bit irrational… The doctor said that she refused to give me anything that a medicine seeker would want. Excuse me… I waited a week to come in! I didn’t jump for drugs! When I disagreed with the Imitrex the doctor said I was being difficult. I was so out of it, they were pushing meds in my IV before I could ask what they were giving me. The steroid made me burn and tingle all over. I felt like I was on fire! It went away after a long 10 minutes though… I asked why I was getting Benadryl. The doctor’s response was: “It is a part of MY protocol.” Well, excuse me, but I have had migraine issues for years Missy. I can tell you more about my response to meds and my body more than you ever could.”

So let us discuss this “doctor” and I put doctor in quotes because in my opinion this is not a doctor but a quack. Why? For several reasons; let me list them here one by one:

A migraine sufferer is not a druggist

There are no “cures” for migraine. Imitrex is a serotonin drug that was originally created for depression and even for patients of depression it only works 30% of the time. New science suggests that inflammation may be involved with some depression patients but not all. Imitrex is the most off-prescribed drug in the US today. By off-prescribed I am talking about it being created for something other than it is being prescribed for.

Benadryl? Really? For migraine? Did this doctor believe that a migraine is an allergy? This doctor should be fired for 2 reasons: 1) Benadryl is an allergy medication given only for allergies and some doctors take it as an ‘innocent” sleeping pill since it does wipe you out. It is “innocent” because it does something else that doctors forget about, which is my point 2) it plays with the water management of the body and dehydrates. Thus if you take a Benadryl, you will end up as a shriveled up dry person unless you replenish. Migraine–read my book–is partly caused by dehydration so giving Benadryl is a double trouble for the pain of migraine! It will make the pain stronger rather than weaker!

Steroid IV for a migraine! Oh my god! Where did this doctor get her degree from? Steroid’s first side effect is a headache. Thus giving steroid for migraine can increase the pain rather than decrease. Secondly, steroid is extremely bad for the body! As you read, the patient felt a burning for 10 minutes all through her body! That tells you that it caused damage in the body rather than any benefit. Steroid also has other harmful effects–many in fact. I even know of people who nearly died from steroid. It is a dangerous drug and is definitely not for migraines!

The only thing this doctor did right is giving an IV to the patient. Nothing else.

Note that this is not an isolated case. Doctors all over the US (and perhaps the world) are using migraine patients as guinea pigs to test various drugs on yet none, and I mean NONE works! Why? Every single medication is aimed at pain relief but in the case of migraines, where the pain is coming from and why has not officially been identified (or if it has it has not been released to the public). In fact cures for migraines will not be forthcoming at all. Why not?

Today we have a medication by one of the pharmaceutical companies that has created a near 100% cure for Hepatitis C for patients with genotype I (mostly US). The medication costs a lot of money because once the patient is cured, there is no more need to get more medications. Thus the pharmaceutical company must calculate into its cost versus profit calculation the amount of money that will be lost by not having repeat customers! So what is the medical community doing? Refusing to allow the medication through to sick patients.

Conclusion 1: the medical industry does not want you to be cured! They want you to remain sick. Having a sick population guarantees jobs for the future!

Conclusion 2: patients need to self-identify what is wrong with them and try all methods without the medical industry first and go to medical care when all else fails.

This obviously does not work for everything: if you need your appendix taken out or have cancer, yes, you will need to face the inevitable of being used by the medical industry and its dirty politics. But if you have other illnesses, like migraine, for example, read my bookFighting The Migraine Epidemic: How To Treat and Prevent Migraines Without Medicines – An Insider’s View
by Angela A. Stanton, Ph.D. either in Kindle (under $4) or in paperback (under $20) edition. It will let you treat yourself without doctors.

New book on Clueless Doctors will be forthcoming not only with stories like this but also explanation and examination of the medical system as a whole and a very big section on self-diagnosis that will give you a head start to at least visit the last doctor. I will also show you how I found the doctors I am willing to deal with and how you can do that too!

Contact me for questions,

Angela

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About Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Angela A Stanton, PhD, is a Neuroeconomist focusing on chronic pain--migraine in particular--, electrolyte homeostasis, nutrition, and genetics. She lives in Southern California. Her current research is focused on migraine cause, prevention and treatment without the use of medicines. As a forever migraineur from childhood, her discovery was helped by experimenting on herself. She found the cause of migraine to be at the ionic level, associated with disruption of the electrolyte homeostasis, resulting from genetic variations of all voltage gated channels that modulate electrolytes and voltage in the brain, insulin and glucose transporters, and several other related variants, such as the MTHFR variants of the B vitamin methylation process and many others. Migraineurs are glucose sensitive and should avoid eating carbs as much as possible.
She is working on the hypothesis that migraine is a metabolic disease.
As a result of the success of the first edition of her book and her research and findings after treating over 4000 migraineurs successfully world wide, all ages and both genders, she published the 2nd (extended) edition of her migraine book "Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: Complete Guide: How To Treat & Prevent Migraines Without Medications". The 2nd edition is the “holy grail” of migraine cause, development, treatment and prevention, incorporating all there is to know. It includes a long section with for medical and research professionals. The book is full of academic citations (over 800) to authenticate the statements she makes to be followed up by those interested and to spark further research interest. It is a "Complete Guide", published on September 29, 2017.
Dr. Stanton received her BSc at UCLA in Mathematics, MBA at UCR, MS in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, PhD in NeuroEconomics at Claremont Graduate University, and fMRI certification at Harvard University Medical School at the Martinos Center for Neuroimaging for experimenting with neurotransmitters on human volunteers, and is currently studying Functional Medicine. Dr. Stanton is an avid sports fan, currently enamored by resistance training and weight lifting, which she does three times a week with a private trainer. For relaxation (yeah.. about a half minute each day) Dr. Stanton paints and photographs. Follow her on Twitter at: @MigraineBook

24 Responses to Vacation Over – Medical Reality Hits Again!

Dr. Stanton- I am reading your book right now and SO excited at the possibility of beating these migraines. I’ve had them since the age of 7, too many ER trips to even count, the full blown chronic debilitating migraine. In the last several years I have been on a nutrition-based holistic healing journey following diets like paleo/ body ecology/ weston price etc. and have seen immense improvement, probably because I’m eating whole foods. I think your book is brilliant and makes so much sense and I’m excited to put it into practice. I have a few questions though, I had come to the conclusion that migraines were the result of parasites in the gut travelling into the sinuses (which I know sounds crazy) but this was based largely on Hulda Clark’s work (curious what you think of her work if you are familiar with her- she also advocates for electronic “zapping” to the brain and other areas to kill parasites), and other blogs like Organic Olivia, etc. Do you think there is anything to that? I saw your response above that parasites can’t break the blood-brain barrier, but I’ve also heard recent studies saying that MS (which a close family member has) may be the result of parasites crossing that barrier. What do you think? Also, I’ve done colon hydrotherapy and several rounds of parasite cleansing, and the results told me that I did/do have some parasite issues going on. Whenever I do a parasite cleanse it also triggers some major migraines, popular opinion being that is “die-off”– now I’m wondering if those kind of herbs are stressing my neurons. If you are able to comment on these issues, I would greatly appreciate it!

I am glad that you are finding my book useful and helpful. You certainly had migraines for a long time. I was just musing the other day with one of my sons, who is also a migraineur, how we no longer have any medical problems since the use of the Stanton Migraine Protocol (that is not in the book but is available at my official site for the protocol).

Some of the foods–like Paleo–you probably have seen improvements because it restricts carbs and not just because you are eating whole foods though that is also essential. However, Paleo has some serious problems in its concepts–it has sent many people, including MDs to ERs–because it is not interpreted correctly and can damage your heart.

In terms of parasites: some illnesses, such as Lyme, do have parasites (spirochetes) that enter the brain but migraine is caused by parasite: it is genetic. Migraine is the manifestation of an energy shortage of a brain that is structurally very different from brains of non-migraineurs. It has more sensory neuron receptor connections than a regular brain so it uses more energy–and that energy is not sugar.

I so far helped over 4000 migraineurs and all with primary migraines (meaning that the migraines are not caused by pinched nerve, brain injury, or other health conditions) have fully recovered regardless of the type of migraine. I reported my findings so far in 2 academic journals (more but the rest are still in process). You find one here and the other here. I also have many articles here that are migraine related so pelase read.

Hi – well I like what you said about steroids – I recently heard someone say they are amazing – because I guess she saw a few people recover after talking them and well, it gave them the boost they needed. but when i was offered some – the reason I did not take it was because first – I wanted to get to the root cause of what I had – and second, all the warnings on their like lung infections – well it scared me and thankfully I never needed any.

However, and I am not sure if your book mentions this – but aren’t parasites and toxins in the body related to migraines? seems to me that all health is in the gut and in the intestines – and if that is not clean and free – well other systems or parts of the body will just continue to fail.

also, heard recently that a man was shut down for promoting a way to make a homemade cream – one that they charge 80 to 90 dollars for – someone can make at home for a few dollars. – and well, it seems that the medical community may wants to treat people their way only – as the “MY protocol” was said by the doc – and many times this involves drugs, drugs, drugs.

anyhow, I like what you said about the stress in the other comment reply….
have a nice day –

Hi Yvette! Thanks for your comments. Let me first explain the parasites and toxins in the gut problem. There is no such–assuming you did not end up eating something with worm eggs in them or bacteria that then develop into worms or bacteria respectively. That kind of parasite requires treatment, as does bacteria such as e. coli and other unfriendly bacteria. These you can get from eating or drinking contaminated food and you will know you have them because you will get sick to your stomach and also to your gut. There is no such that you have a parasite in your gut that manifests itself in a migraine. There are several reasons for this, the most important is that if you have a parasite in your stomach and/or gut, you will be sick to your stomach and/or your gut before anything will head up your head.

Furthermore, your body has no mechanism to digest its food without bacteria. We humans employ a host of bacteria who live with us in a symbiotic way. They digest the food for us and we provide them energy as well to live–assuming you eat the right kind of food. For example, eating the “good” bacteria in a pill form or in yogurt only means you swallowed a bunch of good digesting aid that cannot survive in you unless you eat the kind of food they can digest (insoluble fiber). Since they cannot survive, we end up with digestive issues and also keep on taking the bacteria in our yogurts and pills… this would be completely unnecessary if we ate the kind of food that would allow these good bacteria to survive.

There are some parasites that enter the body through the skin (like some worms by walking bare foot or in infested waters) but again, they do not enter the brain. The brain has a brain-blood barrier that will not let anything through unless it belongs. A few exceptions are encephalitis for example, but that does not manifest itself in a migraine. So we can pretty much separate parasites from migraines–though being sick to your stomach and/or gut may give you a migraine, it is because you emptied the nutrients your brain needed and not because the parasite is in there.

According to Wikipedia, which I quote here for its simplicity, the side effects of this second kind of steroid, the one used for anti inflammatory treatment was named Allergen of the year in 2005:

“Use of corticosteroids has numerous side-effects, some of which may be severe:Neuropsychiatric: steroid psychosis,[9] and anxiety,[10] depression. Therapeutic doses may cause a feeling of inappropriate well-being (“steroid euphoria”).[11] The neuropsychiatric effects are partly mediated by sensitization of the body to the actions of adrenaline. Therapeutically, the bulk of corticosteroid dose is given in the morning to mimic the body’s diurnal rhythm; if given at night, the feeling of being energized will interfere with sleep. An extensive review is provided by Flores and Gumina.[12]Cardiovascular: Corticosteroids can cause sodium retention through a direct action on the kidney, in a manner analogous to the mineralocorticoid aldosterone. This can result in fluid retention and hypertension.Metabolic: Corticosteroids cause a movement of body fat to the face and torso, resulting respectively in “moon face” and “buffalo hump”. and away from the limbs. Due to the diversion of amino-acids to glucose, they are considered anti-anabolic, and long term therapy can cause muscle wasting[13]Endocrine: By increasing the production of glucose from amino-acid breakdown and opposing the action of insulin, corticosteroids can cause hyperglycemia,[10] insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus.[10] By inhibition of the action of sex steroids, they can cause erectile dysfunction, hypogonadism and amenorrhoea.Skeletal: Steroid-induced osteoporosis may be a side-effect of long-term corticosteroid use. While cases of colitis have been reported, corticosteroids are therapeutically employed when the colitis has an auto-immune nature, e.g. ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.Gastro-intestinal: While the evidence for corticosteroids causing peptic ulceration is relatively poor except for high doses taken for over a month,[14] the majority of doctors as of 2010 still believe this is the case, and would consider protective prophylactic measures.[15]Eyes: chronic use may predispose to cataract and retinopathy.Vulnerability to infection: By suppressing immune reactions (which is one of the main reasons for their use in allergies), steroids may cause infections to flare up, notably candidiasis.[16]Pregnancy: Corticosteroids have a low but significant teratogenic effect, causing a few birth defects per 1,000 pregnant women treated. Corticosteroids are therefore contraindicated in pregnancy.[17]Corticosteroids were voted Allergen of the Year in 2005 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society“

This is the type of steroid that migraineurs these days seem to receive but there is no evidence of any kind that it actually helps in any way. There has never been a study linking lack of enough steroid in the body to migraines similarly to how the use of Benadryl is questionable since there is no evidence at all that a migraine is caused by an allergy.

I hope this helps to explain the problem with what this doctor did and why her (and other doctors like her) are way off when it comes to treatment.

and I am not claiming to an expert – esp. in the migraine area like you are – but I do know from years of experience a few things – and I have studied this area pretty well – and – that everyone has differing parasites in the body – not all are pathogenic!! – and sometimes folks who have not the right ones well can even have some introduced as in Helminthic therapy –

but it just seems obvious to me that migraines (at times) could have a connection to toxins in the body – from what is going on inside.
and not all parasites give someone an obvious “sick to your stomach” – sometimes they linger for years – and also they have avery subtle way of existing without causing too much harm – until the parasite overload becomes too much for a person – for whatever reasons – like contaminated food and water or gardening or walking here or there – etc. and also heavy metals lingering in the body – from soil – from aluminum use – from all kinds of stuff – and so all that i was saying was that to get “well” one has to cleanse the gut and colon – because all health stems from a “healthy terrain inside” (and I can’t recall the nutritionists that said that)- but that is the bottom line – and so to me – balancing the magnesium or taking this and that is great – but there has to be cleansing inside the gut – and for some people this can take years.

and I believe fungal connections are at the root of most probs too….

Further – I think that in our culture these days – refined sugar has to be eliminated – it is a poison to the body – and eventually natural sugars can be brought back in – but if people are NOT exercising and they are eating sugar – headaches are only part of what they can expect to have….

~~~

in closing, thanks for taking the time to explain the difference in steroids.
Peace to you and your meaningful work. 🙂 ❤ ❤ ❤ ~y.

Totally agree Yvette to the fungal problem–some can be deadly but most are self cured. But the most I agree to is the sugar problem. All sugars, refined or raw, are bad because of their metabolism changes if we eat them without fiber. A large percent of sugar eaten without fiber (any sugar) ends up as ethanol in the liver, causing all kinds of problems. Eating things that are high simple carbs are way better (like corn or rice) than the equivalent in sugar since as a simple carbs they do not hit the liver and are in fact used by the brain as sugar. Sugar eaten as sugar though hits the liver and initiates insulin release, which then floats in the blood in search of the part that is “sugar” but is actually fructose without fiber, which does not convert into sugar–this part is the one that becomes ethanol. Unfortunately sugar is dope–yep, the drug that is otherwise illegal… so it is very addictive and it is hard to quit. It is also in 80%+ of all foods we eat like bread, ham, etc. It is very difficult to find food without sugar and sugar substitutes also cause diabetes II… plus are toxins. So it is a catch 22 kind of thing. 😦

I agree on the sugar substitutes too – and well, I think to eat right we have to get very basic – it can still be delicious – but it is just simpler. And the sad thing is that it hurts me that so many people do not have a clue – not just the docs – but just so many people. My son was in the hospital for a quick night last month (he is a-okay) but the breakfast that he was served was sad, sad, sad – The “standard american diet” of sugar sugar and more sugar. yikes.

also heard that bioterrorism attacking certain countries is targeting the “sugar addicts” and well, do not want to go there -but had to mention it.

lastly, I have found Mark’s daily apple something that I think would be worth your time checking out…. and recently one of the reader’s he featured for his “real life stories” post – well it had a powerful story that I think is worth sharing…

this lady who was in really really bad health – turned her life around….

“Just taking the step of giving up grains and legumes (and refined or added sugars of course) did amazing things for me. I saw my constant cravings for carbs and starches and sugar fade away. I saw the constant preoccupation with eating and desire to binge start going away. I started doing some intermittent fasting just to reacquaint myself with what actual physical hunger even was, and it felt amazing to start to relearn my body’s signals.”

and
“People don’t even recognize me. Sometimes I don’t even recognize myself. My diet has become better and better and at this point I’m eating local pastured eggs, pastured butter, coconut oil, grass fed meat and poultry, wild sustainable seafood, tons of veggies (mostly organic), plain Greek yogurt, small amounts of nuts and nut butters, avocados, and a couple servings of fruit every day. I enjoy sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and winter squashes in moderation. I have small planned treats every once in awhile (glass of red wine, little bit of ice cream, maybe even a piece or two of pizza, shh, don’t tell anyone).

I am more active than I ever thought possible. I have the whole move frequently at a slow pace thing down pat. I walk many, many miles a week. I’m an avid hiker. I used to hate sunshine and the outdoors and now I am outside enjoying the beautiful national parks and forests near my house every single day. Over the past six months I’ve been able to incorporate strength training…”

Thanks for the link. I agree completely. You just described my diet–minus the Greek yogurt.. I don’t like that one. But I follow the rest. I eat bread–an average–twice a month.. I ate more in Europe because there I found bread made without yeast full of only one grain–I loved the one with rye–and you could see the seeds! Nutty crunchy, No sugar, nothing added. It takes 3 days to make that bread I was told. That I ate every day: one slice and you are full for the whole day. It was that good. But otherwise yes, I pretty much eat what is on the list above plus a lot of milk. 🙂 I will read the link when I have the chance. Still fighting jet lag…

well that bread sounds yummy and healthy. also, a while ago we got away from milk fully – when you catch up from travel check out the sit “notmilk.com” I do not agree with everything he says – but it opened my eyes to so many things about the dairy we have access to – and also how it forms mucous in the body and how basically – too much is the problem – and speaking of Europe – they may also model the best way to have dairy – in moderation and make it good quality.

thanks again for your time today and have a great summer – 🙂 ❤ ❤ ~y. –

I agree with you on all of this! I have my own horror stories , I would live to share with you one day:) Today , feeling migrainie myself, need some chillaxin;) Glad your back and also glad you had a great trip! Btw….stress, such as arguing with someone, tempers flared, is a biggy for bringing me to a migraine, how does this relate to being dehydrated? Eventhough I feel I am most always:(

Hi Darlene. Stress is a very large trigger. I spend a large part of the book discussing “stressors” that are your body’s internal stress responses to external stress. Internal stress is a process that goes to your external stress of any kind something like this: when you get stressed (particularly angry with tempers flared as you mentioned), your body releases several hormones: cortisol, serotonin, adrenalin are a few worthy to note but there are others. When you release these hormones, a few things happen: 1) You use up a lot more energy (in the brain that is voltage if they are made in the brain) to create these and extra voltage means you need extra power to be able to create voltage–this relates back to hydration as per the book. 2) Some of these hormones activate other organs. For example, adrenaline is a fight-or-flight hormone that may block all non-essential body functions so you have more power in your muscles. Such body function block can cause you to become sick to your stomach. 3) When these hormones kick in, your body also increases your heart beat and blood pressure in order to deliver more oxygen to the body parts that need it. Having your body work more requires more energy. That is why you may find that after an argument you feel completely burned out and beat up. You have used up all your “normal” energy and need to add additional energy to make up for what you have just lost without preparation.

I hope this provides a short but useful answer to how stress relates to migraines: you need to add more of those minerals that allow for additional hydration.

Thanks for explaining this, it helps alot:) makes a lot of things make sense to me now! Thanks again and I really appreciate you, friend♡ oh and I love having your expertise and knowledge…I love learning …you have helped me so much:) you can never have enough medical knowledge;)